NOW WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS?!

Recently received my “Creative Machine Embroidery” magazine.  (SEPT/OCT 2016). Their Tips & Tricks column often has real gems to offer. This issue they show bull dog clips attached to the edge of the table to hold your sewing machine cords for power & foot control. This tip came from Kristen G on Facebook.

 

Is this not a clever tip?

I thought this was such a great idea (thank you, Kristen) as I don’t enjoy grubbing around under the table to find my cords to plug into my machine. We unplug when not in use just to be on the safe side in terms of fire and power surges.

I don’t use a foot control at all otherwise you might see a second clip attached to the table for this.

I’m thinking the same thing would work for computer cables and I am about to attach a bull dog clip to the edge of my table where I have my power bar for my iron and a bunch more machines (yes, this is the Janome Education workroom so I have lots of the go!)

What great tips do you have to share with us all on janomelife blog? Post your tips in our comment forum.

 

Tamara Kate Quilt Along: Part 3

Welcome back to the Whatever the Weather Quilt Along!

by Tamara Serrao, Tamara Kate Designs

So, you’ve chosen and cut your fabrics and you’ve built your rainbow wheel and dealt with all those angles. Now it’s time to quilt your Whatever the Weather Quilt. {Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post!}

As with most quilts, there are a number of ways you could tackle the quilting here. As I am far from an expert on free motion quilting, I will leave that part to you who know better than I. Walking foot quilting, however is my thing and the geometry in this quilt lends itself well to the accuracy that can be achieved with this method. One simple and pretty obvious way to quilt it would be with using concentric circles, either keeping your circles a consistent distance apart, or varying the distancesdepending on whether quilting over the coloured triangles or the ground areas. I opted, however, to follow the hard edges of the triangles, playing on the “weather” theme to make the quilting act almost as rays of the sun.

Here I will walk you through the simple steps:

Quilting in the Ditch

The first step is to quilt straight lines in the ditch, from one fabric edge to the opposite, all the way around the quilt, dividing the quilt into sections, like cutting a cake. You should have 12 lines in total (see the red lines above). Remember not to rush it and pull your quilt through. Let the machine do the work to avoid puckering.

Now to outline the triangles

Again, here you will be stitching in the ditch, tackling the rings separately. As in the above image, first trace around the outer edges of the outermost triangles (orange line) all the way around the circle, stopping with your needle down at each corner, lifting your walking foot and pivoting your fabric before continuing down the next side.

The purple line is an easy one, running along the bottom of the same triangles. You can tackle the next 2 rings of coloured triangles together, viewing them as diamonds instead of 2 rows of triangles. First follow the pink line all the way around the ring, going from the top of one diamond to thebottom of the next. Now do the opposite (the green line), again pivoting your fabric at each corner. Do the same with the dark triangles, following the 2 blue lines.

This next step fills in all the ground fabric spaces between the triangles. Using the edge of the walking foot as a guide to keep your quilting lines a consistent distance from the triangles as well as from the previous lines of stitching, sew 3 concentric diamonds (orange lines above) between all the coloured triangles. For each series of 3 diamonds, after each diamond is sewn, follow the very first cake-cutting stitch lines you created to get to the starting point of your next diamond.

This is a fairly invisible method to avoid having to start and stop too many times and have too many ends to bury. You can have some fun in the ground area around the outside of the coloured wheel. Here I varied the distance between my lines of stitching (blue lines above), echoing the outermost triangle points all the way to the edges of the fabric.

The Janome I have the pleasure of sewing with has an adjustable guide bar that can be attached to the AcuFeed (walking) foot. I simply slide it to the width of space I want between my rows of stitching and I have an automatic guide that keeps me on the right path. Easy as that, your quilt is quilted.
(NOTE: Many Janome machines come equipped with, or have an optional even feed/ walking foot that comes with a quilting bar. This accessory can be used in the same manner)

Now all you have left to do is bind it and hang it in a spot where you can regularly appreciate all your hard work. I hope you’ve enjoyed this quilt along as much as I have!

SURPRISE FABRIC GIVE AWAY!

If you have put this project on your future To-Do list, here’s a chance to get you on track to getting started. I am offering 2 charm packs of all those 72 bright, colourful Tamara Kate fabrics to 2 randomly drawn winners (One here and one over on my own blog). For the first pack, all you need to do is leave a comment below to enter.* For the second, head on over to my blog, at Kaya Joy Designs and do the same thing. Draws close a week from today.

Best of luck,

Tamara

*Draw is open to Canadian residents, of age of majority in their province.

MORE QUILT SHOW EYE CANDY…..THE VANCOUVER MODERN QUILT GUILD SHOW

I had been looking forward to this show for weeks. Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild held their first quilt show in  North Vancouver, BC on 27th & 28th August. I hope there will be more shows in the coming years as I enjoyed this one. It took me longer to drive there & back home than wander around looking at the quilts but it was nonetheless well worth the drive!

What is Modern Quilting and how is it different to traditional or other quilting? Check out this website for some explanation. 

Now for some more quilting eye candy…….as I realize you may not have been able to visit this great quilt show in person.  All quilts shown below give the name of the quilt and quilter. I tried my best to document this accurately as I took pics but if I made any errors, please notify me in the comment box below and I will gladly correct the error.

Stellar by Alicia Storey – original design

Got a real surprize when I stood back from this quilt. Bit of a problem when I am peering close up at labels and I see this one: Ellen by Matt Wheeler. Im wondering why he called it Ellen. Is his Mom perhaps Ellen? Then I stand back for a pic of the whole quilt and it hits me between the eyes! Very clever technique. And, of course, I do like Matts work!

Round and round we go by Terry Aske. Another quilter whose work I greatly admire.

Endless Summer by Kathy McNamara – a design by Latifah Saafir , Molehill Molehills Workshop by Latifah Saafir. Latifah is a Janome America Educator based in LA and she has founded a large Modern Quilt Guild there.

Sink or Swim by Jane Prosser. Design is Tula Pink Anchors Aweigh. I liked the quilting on this: circles playing against the stripes.

Butterfly by Lauralyn Connor. She won a Viewers Choice award. see close up of the quilting in next pic.

Pretty cool, dont you think?

Also won an award: Better Together by Eileen Currie, Quilted by Stacey Murton. Original design, Wedge workshop by Paul Krampitz

Delhi Dreams by Megan Hanna – an original design

Aaahh…..African Journey by Mary Stewart, quilted by Sherri Coultard, Design: Pippa Moore.

Double Trouble Sparkle by Trish Poehnell. esign, Sharon Pederson.

And last but not least…..another by my friend, Terry Aske called Gridded Circle

Pipe Shop, Shipyard building, North Vancouver …….A great location to showcase these Modern Quilts……well done to all involved in organizing this show, especially to Krista Hennebury. Congrats to you all on your first and successful show!

 

 

JANOME CLOTHSETTER 500E is now here!

There is a new clothsetter especially for the 500E hoops which attach to the embroidery machine and clothsetter in a different way to some of the other machines. However, they have made this clothsetter somewhat “universal” as it will also accommodate other models such as the MC12000; MC15000; MC9900; Skyline S9, etc. Part # for this new Clothsetter is 859440301.  Please see your local Janome authorized dealer for further information.  Makes sense to me to move in this direction rather than having a different clothsetter for each embroidery machine.

New Janome Clothsetter for Janome 500E and most other machine models like MC15000, MC9900, etc

Now what is a clothsetter and why do I need one? You may wish to check out these links:

1. janomelife some time back. 
2. Video on how to use the Clothsetter table 11000 …..but note they all work in the same way.
3. Clothsetter product info
4. More good info
5. Easily create multiple hoopings with the clothsetter – video by Janome Canada

Whenever you wish to place an embroidery design in a precise location, our Janome clothsetter (for any model) is what you need to do the job easily and almost magically. It acts as your third hand in the hooping process and I would not dream of trying to hoop properly and precisely any other way!

Whenever you are positioning multiple designs on a project that requires more than a single hooping, the Janome clothsetter is once more your very best friend. It takes the guesswork and estimation or endless fiddling with hooping & rehooping to get the crosshair in the correct spot. No, our Janome Clothsetter takes the hassle out of this process so that you can tackle complex embroidery projects without any worries that your designs will not line up perfectly.

Showing one of the Janome MC500E hoops attached to the Clothsetter. The red cross hair on the clothsetter arm aligns with the marked position on the fabric – where you want the center of the design to be. I like to hoop sticky stabilizer and not the fabric. Then it is super easy to move the fabric until it is 100 correctly lined up with the red Clothsetter cross hair. Then press the fabric firmly onto the sticky stabilizer tearaway or wash away both work well). I baste the fabric to the stabilizer in the hoop with the basting function before starting the embroidery stitching.

Can you afford NOT to own a Janome Clothsetter? We don’t think so, but do check out the 5 links above and also visit your local Janome dealer to ask them to show you how the Janome clothsetter works and can be SO much help to you.

 

Whatever the Weather Quilt Along, Part 2: Building the Quilt Top

Building the Quilt Top – Working with Angles

Tamara Kate designer, Tamara Serrao

Welcome back for the second session to help you through building your Whatever the Weather Quilt. Last week I talked about selecting colours and fabrics for the quilt. This week, we will be dealing with angles. (Week One, including the PDF instructions, can be found here)

While the quilt may initially look overwhelming, in fact it mostly uses 60-degree (equilateral) triangles that are pretty easy to work with.

Please refer to the pdf instructions in Part 1 for cutting instructions and cut all the rainbow triangles, dark triangles and PIECES G, H& J as described. For the most part you will be using your 60-degree triangle ruler. Refer to the diagram below for names of pieces and layout as we go along.

For the triangles, I found it easiest to put 3 tape marks on my ruler (one for each size) so it was easy for me to see at an instant that I was cutting at the right spot.

Now that you have all your fabrics cut, let’s start working on all those fun, colourful triangles. First, the bigger ones which will be used for the outermost ring of the “wheel.” 

For each rainbow triangle, randomly pick 2 of your PIECE G (one facing right & one facing left). The difference in width of the two PIECES G above does not matter. What does matter is that you have an absolute minimum 1 inch horizontal space to the side of the angle at the base. 

First take the right hand PIECE G, flip it over so it is on top of the rainbow triangle, right sides together (RST). What is important here is that the right and left sides of your 2 pieces are perfectly aligned and that your top points meet (don’t worry about the bottom not matching). Sew along the right side (all seam allowances are a quarter inch). When you are sewing, the bottom point of your rainbow triangle should protrude beyond the end of your PIECE G. This is normal.

Iron your seam allowances toward the ground fabric and repeat for the other PIECE G.

This next step is very important for accuracy. Trim your block so that

• (a) the base is straight all the way across without trimming the rainbow triangle (just trim the PIECES G if needed to match the rainbow triangle), and
• (b) the top is parallel to the bottom and exactly a quarter inch beyond the sewn top peak of the rainbow triangle.

Repeat this process for all of the large triangles, as well as for all the medium (middle and inner rainbow) and small (dark) triangles.

Making sure you are placing the correct fabrics in the correct order, on a flat surface, place all your trimmed triangle blocks in consecutive circles, keeping each colour group together to form Stacked Triangle Sections (see the quilt layout diagram near the top of this post).

One Section at a time, sew them together, making sure to keep all pieces perfectly centered (for the top triangle, fold a crease half-way along the base to align with the top peak of the next one).

Press seam allowances toward the top. For the next Section, press seams toward the bottom. Continue alternating all the way around the circle.

Now to trim your Sections. Carefully place a long ruler over the top of a section so that the outer edge is exactly a quarter inch beyond all the rainbow and dark triangle sewn right corners. Trim. Do the same thing along the left edge.

Now to cut PIECES A through F. First print the pattern pieces in the pdf as described therein.

 

 

 

 

 

I found it very simple to place my acrylic ruler over the top of the pieces, exactly a quarter inch beyond the printed lines to cut the pattern pieces with an Exacto knife prior to cutting fabric.

For all these pattern pieces, you will be cutting 4 pieces of fabric, but 2 of these pieces need to be the mirrored version of the original.

Place these fabric pieces around the outside of the wheel of Stacked Triangle Sections, determining which colours you would like to have at the top of your quilt accordingly.

Once this is all figured out, start sewing PIECES A through F to their corresponding Sections. If after sewing you notice any of PIECES A through F are slightly wider than the previously assembled Sections, simply trim the excess fabric along the sides, making sure to align your cut edge with your previously trimmed Section edge (Do not cut into the previously trimmed Section edges).

Now, let’s take a look at the basic structure of the quilt in the diagram toward the top of the post. When looking at the entire quilt, note that it can be divided completely into quarters. This is how the quilt is built.

To finish our 4 Quarter Sections, first we need to piece together all the Stacked Triangle Sections from each quarter (be sure to pin to align triangle points side-by-side prior to sewing).

Then print and cut 4 PIECE K from ground fabric (remember to add the seam allowance). If you haven’t sewn circles before, this isn’t that hard. It just takes a bit of patience and lots of pins. You will be stitching the curved edge of PIECE K to the curved edge of your pieced Sections (I will show you with a solid piece of fabric as it’s easier to see, but will work the same).

First, fold PIECE K in half to form a crease at the centre of the curve. With RST, pin the curved edge of PIECE K at the crease line to the centre of the pieced Sections. Also pin each end of the curve of PIECE K to each end of the curve of the pieced Sections. Work your way between these pins, pinning every inch or so all the way along the curve, distributing the fabric evenly throughout.

Very carefully sew along the curved edge, removing pins as you go, constantly checking to be sure that fabric is not being caught on the underside. Slow and steady is the key here.

Press the seams toward PIECE K. Sew all the Quarter Sections together in order and your quilt top is finished!

That’s it for today. Over the next few days you may want to square up your quilt top and sandwich batting between it and your backing fabric in your preferred fashion in preparation for the final instalment to this blog series where we will look at quilting options.

Have a great week and enjoy looking at your rainbow.

(PS- The instructions are added again below for your reference)

Whatever the Weather Quilt Instructions

GIVING NEW LIFE TO A HO-HUM T-SHIRT

OK, so I bought a pack of 4 t-shirts a while back in different colours. This white one quickly looked grungy (perhaps the fault of “he who does the laundry”? But I won’t complain too much lest I end up having to do it myself!)

Anyway, point is I was not wearing this t-shirt much. Do you have items of clothing in your closet that have lost their appeal? Do you turf these out to the thrift store? Perhaps some could be upcycled quickly and easily so you can wear the garment again?

I recently came across a lovely post on www.sew4home.com . Do you know this website? If not, we highly recommend you check it out. They exclusively use Janome machines for all their sewing projects and there is a NEW project EVERY day together with an archive of 100’s, if not 1000’s, of projects.

Anyway, this one focussed on giving new life to an old t-shirt.

I found some rather nice wide lace in my stash and set to work. It did not take long to pin the lace in place (which was great and it covered over a stubborn stain). Then I zig-zag stitched the lace down over the t-shirt. Next the t-shirt was cut away behind the lace. And finally I stitched over the edges of the lace again to secure it + stitched the seam in the lace down the one side seam.

Voila! new life breathed into my white t-shirt:

 

BOOK REVIEW: MODERN QUILTING DESIGNS by Bethany Pease

I was a lucky girl on my birthday recently. My best friend gave me this lovely book. It has over 90 free motion designs to add texture and style to my next quilt.

Back Cover of the book: “Step out of stippling (makes me think of the workshops I teach called: Beyond boring stippling ……Liz)…..Be fearless with your free motion quilting! This unique sketchbook is filled with modern designs inspired by the world around us. Pebbles, waves, vines, and finials are just a few of the things you will find in Bethany’s hip and doddly quilting designs. You’ll also learn how to spot interesting patterns everywhere you look to translate into your quilting.

• Over 90 unique quilting designs for borders, blocks, and fillers – many are continuous-line.
• Fun, freeform shapes and lines give an imaginative spark to any quilt.
• Quilting diagrams show you how to put designs together for the most creative effect. “

Bethany is a professional longarm quilter in North Carolina, USA. She quilts for customers all over the US and even Switzerland.

A couple of pages definitely caught my eye, amongst others I can’t wait to try out: ferns & spiral shapes as I have long been fascinated by ferns and spirals. My Pinterest boards are full of beautiful images of these botanicals……Bethany has given me further inspiration to do more with these shapes as I free motion.

One page in Bethany’s book

Some of my thread doodlings of spiral fiddlehead fern motifs – a lot of fun

Book is published by StashBooks http://www.stashbooks.com – an imprint of C&T Publishing.

And another showing a sketch for a free motion pattern.

Don’t know about you, but I’m all inspired to get free motioning up a storm……..check out Bethany’s book and you might feel the same!

 

Tamara Kate Quilt Along: Part 1

Welcome to the first-ever Janome Life Quilt Along!

Guest blogger: Tamara Serrao, Tamara Kate

This is the first in a 3-part series that will walk you through the steps of creating this quilt yourself, should you so desire. You can download the free instructions and quilt along with us over the next few weeks. Download the instructions from this link:

Whatever the Weather Quilt Instructions

Session 1: Planning the Quilt – Choosing Colours

If you were at Quilt Canada earlier this summer, you may have seen the Whatever the Weather quilt, front and centre in the Janome Canada booth. I created it to help launch the sewing tote & luggage collection in the booth that I had a hand in designing and that bears my name.

Find your Tamara Kate luggage (manufactured exclusively for Janome Canada by Blue Fig) at your local Janome Dealer

 

 

Today we are talking about choosing colours, but first, a bit about how the quilt came to be.

 

INSPIRATION

The design process for the quilt went a bit like this: I wanted to echo the colourful bicycle wheels on the bags, so I naturally worked in a circle. To play on the Whatever the Weather theme (and because I love colour so much), I chose to use a whole rainbow of colours for the wheel. To give myself an added challenge, I opted to use only my own fabrics produced over the past 3 years through Michael Miller Fabrics for this part. And finally, I wanted to emulate, but not too literally, the lovely, soft grey fabric of the bags for the quilt ground.

LAYOUT

Visually, the quilt top can be broken down as follows:

• 3 rings of 24 coloured triangles each, on neutral ground.
• 2 rings of 24 dark triangles each (which, when placed together form diamonds) also on neutral ground.
• 4 central quarter-circles of neutral ground.
• 24 outer wedges of neutral ground.

COLOUR & FABRICS

Now we get to the fun part, choosing fabrics. And the most fun is obviously working with all that colour, so let’s start there.

RAINBOW RINGS x 3

You need (24 x 3) = 72 different coloured charm squares in total. I chose fabrics of similarly strong value for my 2 outer rings and lighter valued fabrics for my inner ring (because that’s what I had on hand). You could work with stronger, medium and lighter values if you wish, for probably an even more dramatic look.

 

To achieve a full rainbow, you will need reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and purples. But to make it a rainbow that really blends together all the way around, you will also need all those “in-between” colours of gold, coral, pink, indigo, turquoise and chartreuse. You really need so little of each fabric, so start raiding your scrap bins.

Once you have lots of pieces pulled, start laying them out in a circle, following the rainbow all the way around, as in the colour wheel above. There will probably be duplicates of some colours. That’s ok. For the moment, keep them together in groups. You will, no doubt, have lighter (or softer) versions of each colour. Place those inside the circle, under the bolder versions, and if you are doing an outer ring that is bolder than the middle ring, place those fabrics to the outside.

Stand back from your rainbow and squint at it. You will start to see where you have gaps in colour transition, and where you will have to make decisions of which fabrics to illuminate due to redundancy. If you look closely at my quilt, I could have used a few more options in the blues, but I didn’t have any so chose to go ahead with it anyway. Not the end of the world. Or you could go on the hunt for those missing colours… just be sure to take samples of the surrounding ones with you.

When you are happy with your choices and layout, I strongly suggest photographing it for memory purposes. It will save lots of frustration later on in the piecing stage.

Create 3 piles of your 24 fabrics, one for each ring. Label the piles accordingly (outer, middle, inner) so that you are sure you are cutting them all to the correct size. Here is everything I chose to work with:

DARK INNER RINGS x 2

Now for the inner dark triangles: I opted for charcoal to be my base colour here, though really any dark neutral would work. Pull together as many fabrics as you can with small-scale prints that all have roughly the same ground colour (a bit of variety keeps it interesting). You only need a total of about a fat quarter of fabric, so pieces
can be fairly small. I had 6 in total that I randomly used around the circle. Put these fabrics aside in a pile.

That last option in the image above was strategically fussy cut for the quilt to just use the squiggle lines.

GROUND FABRICS

To have some fun with the ground fabric, I chose to go with fine black-on-white prints and soft grey-and-white prints. This mix keeps things playful and dynamic, though you could also work with a solid neutral fabric all over. Here you will need more fabric, though, so be sure to have roughly 2 metres in total. In my case, I used a bit more than a fat quarter each of 6 different fabrics that I randomly pulled from wherever I needed in the quilt. That’s your last pile of fabric and you are ready to start cutting.

That’s it for today. I will be back next week with the second instalment, “Working with Angles.”

Until then happy rainbow-making!

Tamara

What Will You Make Today?

September Resolution: Making Happiness!

They say that September might be the best time for New Year’s resolutions, as it is a natural time of renewal and starting fresh. We’re brushing the sand from our toes and seeing kids off to school. We’re rotating clothes in our closets and changing up our cooking menu. What better time to resolve to make a little handmade happiness? To dig into those projects that we have been pinning all summer long? If you have been imagining sewing up some great projects to add personality to your home decor, we have a little prezzie to offer: the Mod Pods Pillow pattern from Cynthia Frenette. And, if you are looking for a new sewing machine to help you in your maker quest, we have a preview of great new models arriving in Janome Canada dealer stores this fall: the M series.

New for You QDC Models

The M series is the latest in our QDC {Quilting, Decor & Couture}  line of quality built mid-line sewing machines that come packed with all of the stitches and features you need to handle any sewing project. With three machines and a serger, the M series has something for every sewist. The M50, M100 and M200 machines offer 50, 100 and 200 stitches respectively. Each comes with a bountiful selection of accessory feet, including a bonus Quilt accessory package as well as a hard cover and a table.

Janome QDC models have long been favourites of dealers and customers across Canada. Sturdy metal frames and powerful needle and presser foot bars give these machines the reliability and power to push through any project. Needle up/down, pattern lock and start/stop push button sewing controls offer the convenience that make sewing a pleasure.

A Designer Touch

We wanted to make this next generation QDC series special, so we reached out to Canadian Artist & Designer (as well as a Janome Artisan), Cynthia Frenette to partner with us on the machine logo. The design shape took its cue from the curved control panel on the face of the machine. The multi-colour pods are the many design styles that grow from the maker within; the “m” at the core of the logo is not the machine but the user. Partnering with Cynthia on the design was great fun, but that was only the beginning!

Cynthia designed several signature M series projects to celebrate the launch of the machines. She took the logo design and began to explore new ways of seeing it. This curiosity led to a wide variety of concepts for quilts and home decor. We invite you to visit Cynthia’s blog to learn more about her design process.

A Project to Jump-Start Your Sewing

The Mod Pods Pillow, by Cynthia Frenette for Janome

Playfully twisting and turning the logo shape resulted in  a unique form that opened itself to all sorts of interpretations! Cynthia created a signature quilt (soon to debut in the M Series Look Book) that will be great fun to make. But, for a simple project to get started with, why not try her Mod Pods Pillow?

The strong design elements come together with simple sewing using one of several blanket {applique} stitches and the popular Serpentine stitch available on the M series (as well as other Janome models). Robert Kaufman Kona Cottons and the lovely Essex Linen round out the materials list. You can find the Mod Pods Pillow directions here:

modpods-pillow-project-pattern

Machine applique and the serpentine stitch suit the style of the Mod Pod pillow

We hope that you enjoy a great start to your sewing season. We invite you to visit your local Janome dealer to check out the new M series and all of the other quality machine in the Janome line.  We look forward to sharing lots of great new projects and inspiration here on Janome Life to help you to answer the question:

What Will You Make Today?

{ and if you make your own Pods Pillow, please share, we would love to see! #mxmJanome, @JanomeCanada .  And what exactly does mXm mean? There’s more to come in the upcoming M Series look book, but let’s just say that “you” put the “m” in mXm: made by me}

 

QUILT SHOW EYE CANDY FOR YOU!

This quilt was made by Matt Wheeler : Colourful Geometrics

One of our local Janome dealers, THE QUILTED BEAR in Ladner, BC, puts on a unique kind of quilt show each year in August. It is held on a Sunday together with a vintage car show…..keeps the men busy while we look at quilts (although I am pleased to see more men becoming quilters and winning prizes too!)

I dont have a name for the quilt maker as this was hanging outside a building and did not have a Ladner Quilt Walk label on it.

I spent several enjoyable hours a few weeks back looking at quilts which are displayed inside the windows of many stores in this quaint little town just south of the Fraser River in Vancouver, BC.  It was a brilliant sunny day so it was difficult to get good quality pics with the reflections on the glass. But I tried!

Stack  and whack pinwheels.  Made by Bonnie Knoblauch

And  close up of the quilting:

Lots of reflection on this window which is a pity as I was interested in this one. First saw it a couple of months ago at The Saskatchewan Stitches Conference. Dianne Janssen will be teaching it there next year. It is called The Gypsys Wife. This one was made by: Ursula Von Hertzberg

I really liked this quilt and so wanted to include it even though I either did not record the name of the quilter or there was no name on it. Sorry about that. Anyone know? and I will add the name in.

Again, apologies for the window reflection. I have always liked lone stars. Made one once the hard way. I have a Quilt Smart and a Quilt in a day kit to do the easier way but……you guessed it remains in my stash due to time constraints. This Lone star quilt was made by Pam Eyre.  She called her quilt Inner Aqua Radiance.

There was also a display of Quilt of Valour in the local United Church. We have featured Quilts of Valour in previous posts – check out this link to find our more about this great organization which makes quilts for returning and injured Canadian Forces personnel. Here are a couple of the many quilts that were displayed:

Hanging outside the entrance to the United church and the Quilts of Valour display

Take inspiration from these very Canadian themes……next year is, as you know, Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation and we will be seeing a lot more quilts similar to this and umpteen challenges, quilt exhibits and more along these lines right across our beautiful country next year……Have you got some Canadian memory quilts planned? Even though it is a brag, I have one made (except for the sleeve & binding) already and another 2 in the planning stage!

And this entire Ladner Quilt Walk would not have been possible without the Quilted Bear quilt shop situated right in the historic part of Ladner. Thank you to Carol & all her helpers for putting on this delightful summer show every year.

Don’t you just love a good quilt show? I sure do and have been to quite a few this summer. Looking forward to seeing you at a Sewing or Quilt show this Fall.